OUR VIEW: Bullying online fails any standards

Although Rutherford County school officials are trying to impress upon students and their parents the seriousness of the consequences of the latest wave of cyberbullying, some students appear oblivious to the warnings.

Instagram has been the site for the recent spate of photos and insulting comments from anonymous posters, but any number of online sites could have been the online medium.

Of particular concern to county school officials was that the cyberbullying sites contained school names and might give the impression that they were official school sites. Of course, these were not official school sites.

Rutherford County Schools policy "prohibits any student from bullying, intimidating or creating a hostile educational environment for another student."

Bullying is not new to schools, but the anonymity that the Internet affords allows comments to be even more vicious than in person and provides no indication whether the poster is a student, an adult or even lives in Rutherford County.

Cyberbullying has been in particular focus in recent months as such actions have resulted in suicides by the victims of bullying. Perpetrators have included adults as well as students.

Students who are posting their comments seem to think they are rendering some public or individual service in identifying students they do not think meet some standard of appearance or behavior that they have established.

Even if posters do not recognize the lack of standards of civility and responsibility in they are doing, they should become aware quickly that bullying is a violation of school system policy and perhaps the law.

And the responsibilities lie not just with students but also with parents. Schools Director Don Odom stated that succinctly: "We can't overcome these types of issues without assistance from parents. We need parents to monitor their children's online activity and to put a stop to any incidents of cyberbullying."